I learned to embroider when I was a kid, when everyone was really into cross stitch (remember the '80s?). Eventually, I migrated to surface embroidery, teaching myself with whatever I could get my hands on...read more

I learned to embroider when I was a kid, when everyone was really into cross stitch (remember the '80s?). Eventually, I migrated to surface embroidery, teaching myself with whatever I could get my hands on...read more

French Knot Video Tutorial

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Here’s a video tutorial for the French Knot. This knot is used often in hand-embroidery, but a lot of people avoid it, because it intimidates them. Once you work one correctly, you’ll find that it’s really easy!!!

There are different methods to making French knots. Some people wrap their thread around the needle three times, some only two. I generally use two wraps, but if I want a larger knot, I’ll go with three, depending on the thread I’m using. Going with more than three wraps around the needle doesn’t always work, though – the wraps can become unruly!

You can also achieve larger knots by changing the weight of the thread you are using. Instead of, say, two strands of DMC, you can use three or four.

Here are a couple useful tricks to working good French knots easily:

1. Use a milliner (aka straw) needle. The shaft of this needle is the same circumference as the eye, so it passes very easily through the knot. However, if you don’t have a milliner needle, regular embroidery needles do work. They just might be a bit cantankerous at times. Don’t tension up your thread so tightly that the eye doesn’t fit through the knot!

2. Keep tension on your working thread while you’re pulling your needle through so that your coils stay in their proper place on your needle.

In the video, I’m using a #3 milliner needle and #5 pearl cotton. The pearl cotton is a heavier thread that is easier to see in the video production.

I’m also wrapping the thread forward and around the needle (with the needle placed in front of the working thread at the beginning of the stitch). If you watch the video, you’ll see what I mean. This is not the only way to do the French knot. You can bring the needle up behind the working thread, and wrap the thread around the needle in the other direction (away from you). I’ve seen it done and diagrammed both ways. Erica Wilson’s book, for example, illustrates it the way I’ve done it in the video, except with only one wrap (well, it works out to one and a half wraps, the way she illustrates it). So either way is fine. The direction of the wrap actually does make a difference, if you’re working a stitch with lots of wraps on it, like the bullion knot, but the French knot is so small, that the difference in the direction of the wrap when taking into consideration the twist of the thread is not really noticeable.

Here’s the video:

If you’d like to see how French knots can be used for lettering, feel free to check out this tutorial on embroidered lettering, where I used French knots for one of the letters.

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THANK YOU!I have been searching everywhere for someone to Show me how to do these stitches!!!I own many books but I learn very little that way I need to SEE someone doing the stiches. I have been crazy quilting for 4 years and now I can make them much more then plain patches.Vanessa

Thank you , thank you, thank you! I could do these when I was a little girl (my mother showed me), but just couldn’t seem to make it work as an adult trying to follow written instructions. Excellent tutorial.

Thank you so much for your instructional videos. My 87 year old mother has a pattern she is doing which needs the pistol stitch. I think it looks something like the french knot but long. Is that right?

Hi, Hazel – that’s right. For pistol stitch, instead of going down into the fabric right next to where you came up and placing the knot right there, you take your needle a distance away from where you came up, to make the line of the pistol stitch. The rest of the stitch is the same – wrap your needle, hold the working thread to keep tension while you pull through, and there’s your pistol stitch.

consider this comment posted on all of your tutorials. thank you so much for posting these. i had difficulty with several stitches and your tutorials straightened me out. bravo to your high quality vids and fantastic instruction!

thanks heaps for your site. your visual/vocal instructions are excellent. i have saved this site in my favourites so i can refer back to this site for another lesson . you are a very thoughtfull person to add this free editorial. thanks for you patience , time and knowledge.regards cheryl

YAY!! I LOVE your wonderful videos :o) I am a quilter and have getting hooked on using hand embroidery on by blocks to add extra charm. Thankyou so much for investing your time to make these for us. I’ve bookmarked it. Amie-Tennessee :oD

Thank you, thank you, thank you! I struggled for for two days trying to make french knots. I couldn’t figure out what I was doing wrong. After viewing your tutorial twice, I made one on the first try! I’m now on my fifth consecutive knot. Stichin’ days are here again!

You are so wonderful!!! Since I’ve never embroidered/stitched in my life, I wondered whether I would be able to carry it through. I just recently got the ‘bug’ to create something for my son, who’s only one years old. After browsing the web and buying books/magazines on sewing/embroidery, I got overwhelmed with the information. Once I read some of your posts and watched the videos, I realized that I could actually do these stitches. Thank you so very much for having the videos and the illustrated tutorials; they’re a life saver and I cannot wait to try the basics and make something for my son. Please don’t ever stop what you’re doing and don’t ever think that you’re doing too much. I’m just so inspired right now, I’m elated!

I’m using perle cotton in the video, so no, it wouldn’t be doubled. Even with stranded cotton, you don’t have to double your floss. If you want teeny tiny French knots, you can just use one strand of cotton. If you want bigger knots, add the number of strands you need to get the size you want.

That’s a good question! I’ll address that if I ever re-make this video!

But, in the meantime, if you look under “tips and tricks for hand embroidery” in the top right column on the website, you’ll find there a list of articles that are instructive, and under there, and index on different ways to start and end threads. These aren’t the only ways, but the only ones I’ve written whole posts about!

Anyway, normally for French knots, if I’m using a fine thread, it’s easy enough to work a couple tiny anchor stitches over one thread, and then to work the French knots on top of that. Otherwise, if there are other embroidered areas right close by, I’ll work anchoring stitches in the areas close by that will be embroidered, then carry the thread over. Even with heavy thread, you can usually manage anchor stitches and stitch into them or over them somehow. It’s better than a knot, anyway, I think…

I am working on my first ever cross stitch, (of a Geisha) that uses several French Knots and I must admit, I have been alittle intimidated by this step. But watching your video and doing it at the same time, was an incredible help!

thank you SO MUCH I cross stitch occasionally but I have never (and I can’t figure out how because its such a common stitch) come across a french knot and the instructions in the kid make absolutely no sense unless you can actually see it…..its got all this point A point B stuff…..again thanks BUNCHES!!!!! 😀

Thank you so much! This is the clearest video I have found anywhere! I was getting very frustrated that after spending I don't even want to think how long on this huge dolphin picture, I couldn't do the detailing on the bubbles. Thanks again 🙂

Well, you're right – it is called something else: pistol stitch. It's exactly what you said, though – an elongated French knot. So, instead of putting your needle back into the fabric right next to where you came up, you take it down as far away as the length of the stitch, so that you end up with a long straight stitch with the knot ending up on the very tip of the long stitch.

This is a wonderful site!! Thanks a lot for the same. I'm interested in a particulay embroidery pattern from India, known as 'Shisha' stitch ('Mirror' stitch). I could find few websites explaining it, but would be great to hear it from you, as your narrative style is simply awesome.Hoping to hear from you on this one.(Shisha stitch:- http://www.joyfulabode.com/2008/02/12/tutorial-indian-shisha-mirror-embroidery/)

I am so thrilled and excited to find this site. All I wanted to know was how to do a "French Knot" after searching the internet for hours! I found you and it's free!!! I just can not believe how lucky I am to find you. A million thank you's!!!!!!Keep up the good work

Thanks! This is so helpful. I’ve wanted to learn some simple embroidery stitches for a long time, but just reading instructions was NOT working. This was so clear, easy to see, easy to understand. Wonderful.

Hi, Mary Ann – it’s all in the way the thread is twisted. The French knot wraps in the same direction around the needle, and the colonial knot wraps in a figure 8 around the needle…. They look slightly different when finished, because of the twist, but if you were just glancing, it wouldn’t be so obvious that it was one and not the other, without looking closely at the knot. Hope that helps!

I look forward to watching your videos. I enjoy making French knots but your video was interesting to me. You wrap the needle the opposite direction that I do. You bring the thread over and towards you. I wrap over and away from me. I do wrap twice. I’ve seen some directions say to wrap once. I’ve never trusted that style, always worried it wouldn’t stay in a knot. Thank you for the video and I’ll have to try it your way.

Thank you so much for this video. I have looked through several written explanations as well as pictures that are supposed to explain the “knot”. None of them helped. But yours was fantastic. I am headed upstairs to grab my needle and thread right now. I really appreciate the time you took to teach us.

I have been doing these #@*&% french knots wrong for years! You have put me on the right path. I also watched your turkey work video. I have a kit that I have been putting off for the longest time because the turkey work looked so complicated. You really made it look less….theatening. Thank you SO much for your wonderful website!

Hi thanks for the tutorial u made it look really easy, the pattern I have uses one strand of thread and says to wrap round the needle 4 times, I’m assuming that’s because it’s thin cotton, will it be as easy to do it with 4? Thanks Georgina

Mary, Thanks for the great video after watching you just once I was able to make a french knot in a wedding sampler for my daughter and son-in-laws upcoming wedding. I was getting so frustrated trying to figure it out and actually was thinking about paying someone to do it, but now am finishing it myself. Thanks so much again for you help.

I love your website; it’s been so helpful! My 92 year old grandmother just taught me how to embroider during last winter break. I’m an English teacher too, and I for so long I thought sewing and embroidery were boring even though all the women in my family do one or the other.
I’m hooked now!

Hi, Michelle – Thanks for your note. It’s good to hear you’re hooked! I find needlework to be a most relaxing thing to do after a day in the classroom. It’s a great stress reliever (not that I’d ever admit that teaching can be stressful!). ~MC

Thanks you so much! I have never been able to get this stitch to work for me! I always end up with a huge mess either in front or back, but your video helped me to figure out what I’ve been doing wrong! Thanks so much!!!!

This was a great, simple video. I’ve been cross-stitching since I was eight, and I’ve found that so many of the online videos are overly complicated. This was so well-done. Now I can finish my thank-you gift for my Nonna!

Thank you so much, Mary! Your explanations are great.
I was wondering, is there an efficient way to start and finish the thread if I just need one knot and I don’t have other stitches to anchor to? Thank you for your wonderful site!

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! You succeeded in teaching me how to do a french knot where others have tried and failed. I was making a Christmas gift and really wanted to be able to say I had made it ALL myself. Thanks to you, I didn’t have to ask my Mom to put on the french knots.

Hi, Mary Corbet! I am so grateful for your lovely website especially the tutorials. I was wondering what method you recommend for starting and tying off French knots, particularly in a cluster removed from another area of work?

Dear Mary,while showing my friend some quilting squares I came across some candle wicking blocks I had done 33 years,,,she loved them and has inspired m to get back to wicking!!! I came across your site while trying to learn again,,,your videos are just the best!!!Thanks for being here I’m so xcited!! Kathy

I noticed that you always put the needle back into the fabric to the right of the point it emerged. Is that important to the stitch or just habit? I once heard that a French Knot should only have one wrap and any more wraps were just a type of boullion know. Do you have an opinion on that?

Just wanted to say thank you!! I’ve been trying forever to do a french knot and for the life of me just couldn’t understand the instructions!! I am so excited that the animals on my daughters birth record will now have eyes!!! Thanks so much 🙂

Thank you for this tutorial video! I have tried following diagrams in books to learn this stitch, but have never quite figured it out. After watching and sewing along with your video, I got my knot on the first try.

Hi, Mary! I thought I knew how to sew a French Knot, but all of mine seem to be able to pull right through when I sew them, in fact, they even come undone from the front if I’m ironing a piece I’d like to put on display! Is the secret just using two wraps?

THANK YOU for the well done video demonstrating how to make the French knot. The lighting was great, the technique was clearly shown (you never once got your hand in the way of my seeing what you were doing), and you have a pleasant voice. This all makes for great video making.

It’s my first time on your site so I’m going to go now and look some more! And, perhaps, view more videos. I hope they all are as good as this one is!

BTW, I got to your site by doing a Bing search “how to make french knots”. If I recall, it was not the 1st one to pop up but I’m so glad to have found you.

GREAT tutorial and site — thank you for sharing! Could you tell us if the photo featured at the top of this article (pink foxgloves?) is from a specific pattern, or is it just a little embroidery “doodle”? It’s really pretty!

Hi, Laura – that was from a piece I worked years and years ago, and I’m not exactly sure who the design was by now. It has slipped my memory – but it was definitely a design by someone else. Sorry I can’t help further on that one! ~MC

Hi, You can use any thread for French knots. It depends on the size of knot you want. Anything from one strand of cotton floss (which will give you a tiny knot) to heavy perle cotton, to anything in between, will work!

Hi thanks 4 the help 🙂 I have a suggestion when u put ur new stitch, can u plz let the viewers know which thread u are using +the needle size, so it would be easy. Thanks for teaching us the new stitches every time and ther are very very helpful for all. :-).

I’m relatively new to hand embroidery & haveI watched numerous videos/tutorials on how to do these stitches. Your tutorialss are the best & easiest to understand & follow. I’ve bookmarked this site so I can readily find it. Thank you for making these available.

Hi, your french knot vídeo isn’t working. I have a proyect to finish and the only stitch left are french knots. I don’t stitch them very often I looked in the internet and I think your site is great and sólo be checking it often.
I hope you can fix the vídeo.
Retarda
Cornelia

Hi Mary, I’m so glad I stumbled across your blog! Thanks for the easy to follow instructions, I can now stitch a french knot without any problems. Just one question…how can I tie off after each knot? The back of my work is looking like a tangle of weeds…
Thank you,
Ursula

If you’re working the knots close together, though, I probably wouldn’t end the thread. It’s good to keep the back of your embroidery as neat as possible, but some thread build up on the back is generally inevitable. It’s not something you should stress out about, as long as it’s not affecting the front of the embroidery.